Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah has recently purchased over 100 acres of land adjacent to Lebanon's Chouf Mountains for the purpose of storing missiles and weapons it has amassed with Iranian and Syrian assistance in special fortified compounds there, according to a report in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida on Sunday.
Senior Arab officials told the newspaper the lands purchased by Hezbollah are located in an overwhelmingly Druze area of Lebanon, which Hezbollah believes the Israel Air Force would be wary of attacking.
According to U.N. Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, Hezbollah is prohibited from engaging in any type of military activity south of the Litani River, including storing ammunition in the Shiite villages its controls in the country's south. The Chouf Mountains are north of the river and so technically the weapons buildup there is not in violation of the resolution.
In recent years, Israel has avoided attacking Hezbollah weapons convoys inside Lebanon so as not to provide the organization with an excuse to attack Israel.
The newspaper also reported that,during their most recent meeting in Moscow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Russian President Vladmir Putin to relay a message to Hezbollah and Iran that Israel would not allow Iran to establish itself militarily in southern Lebanon near the border or construct missile factories and weapons storage sites north or south of the Litani River.
